The EWTN portal reports that the usurper Robert Prevost, styling himself “Pope Leo XIV,” has granted his “assent” to the election of Chorbishop Sharbel Maroun as “archbishop” of the Maronite Archeparchy of Damascus, succeeding the outgoing Samir Nassar. The article details Maroun’s career in the United States, his role as protosyncellus of the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles, and his extensive involvement in “ecumenism and interreligious dialogue,” “new evangelization,” and the media outlet Télé Lumière International. The “Archbishop” Bernard Hebda of Saint Paul and Minneapolis celebrates the “providential” partnership between his archdiocese and Damascus since 2017. This routine bureaucratic announcement masks the canonical impossibility of any legitimate episcopal mission deriving from a manifest heretic occupying the Chair of Peter, rendering the appointment a null act of a schismatic sect consolidating its control over Eastern Catholic structures.
The Usurper’s Null “Assent” and the Vacancy of the Holy See
The very premise of the report—that one “Pope Leo XIV” possesses the authority to confirm or reject an episcopal election—is a juridical and theological fiction. Since the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, the See of Peter has been vacant. The line of claimants beginning with Angelo Roncalli (John XXIII) and continuing through Robert Prevost (Leo XIV) are not popes but public heretics who, by their adhesion to the Second Vatican Council’s doctrines of religious liberty, ecumenism, and collegiality, have automatically severed themselves from the Catholic Church. As St. Robert Bellarmine teaches in De Romano Pontifice: “A Pope who is a manifest heretic, by that very fact ceases to be Pope and head, just as he ceases to be a Christian and member of the body of the Church.” The Bull Cum ex Apostolatus Officio of Pope Paul IV definitively establishes that the promotion of a heretic “even if it shall have been uncontested and by the unanimous assent of all the Cardinals, shall be null, void, and of no effect.” Therefore, Prevost’s “assent” is canonically nonexistent; it carries no more weight than the approval of a layman. The Maronite Synod’s election, even if conducted according to their internal statutes, receives no mission from the true Church because the source of that mission—the Roman Pontiff—is absent. The faithful in Damascus are not receiving a shepherd sent by Christ’s Vicar, but a functionary installed by the abomination of desolation sitting in the Vatican.
The Maronite Hierarchy: Captive of the Conciliar Sect
The Maronite Church, once a bastion of fidelity to Rome and the lex orandi, lex credendi of the Antiochene tradition, has been fully absorbed into the conciliar sect’s structure. The article notes Maroun’s ordination in 1989, long after the Novus Ordo Missae and the new sacramental rites had replaced the immemorial traditions. The Maronite liturgy itself has been subjected to the same modernist butchery as the Roman Rite, stripping the Holy Qurbono of its propitiatory character and turning the altar into a table of fellowship. By recognizing the false popes, the Maronite Patriarch and his Synod have placed themselves outside the communion of the Catholic Church. They operate as a sui iuris church within the neo-church, not as a living branch of the one true Vine. The appointment of Maroun—touted for his “ecumenism and interreligious dialogue”—signals the continuation of the betrayal of the Maronite martyrs who died rather than submit to heretical emperors or compromise the Faith. The “partnership” with the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, lauded by the modernist Hebda, is not a bond of Catholic charity but a diplomatic alliance between two administrative units of the same counterfeit religion.
Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue: The Badge of Apostasy
The article explicitly lists Maroun’s role as “representative for ecumenism and interreligious dialogue” as a credential for his elevation. This is the hallmark of the conciliar religion. The Syllabus of Errors of Pope Pius IX condemns the proposition that “The Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (Error 80). Vatican II’s Unitatis Redintegratio and Nostra Aetate replaced the Church’s divine mandate to convert all nations with a Masonic project of religious indifferentism. By promoting a prelate defined by this ministry, the neo-church confirms its nature: it is not the Ark of Salvation but a platform for the “cult of man” condemned by Pius XI in Quas Primas. There, the true Pope teaches: “The state must leave the same freedom to the members of Orders and Congregations… who are indeed the most valiant helpers of the Pastors of the Church and contribute most to the expansion and establishment of Christ’s Kingdom.” The neo-church’s “ecumenism” expands not Christ’s Kingdom but the kingdom of Antichrist, where the “conversion of Russia” or Damascus means only absorption into a pan-religious syncretism. Maroun’s work with Télé Lumière International, a media outlet saturated with the spirit of the world, further evidences the naturalization of the supernatural.
The “New Evangelization”: A Euphemism for the Destruction of the Faith
Maroun is also credited with being a “representative for new evangelization.” This term, coined by the heretic Wojtyla (John Paul II) and central to the Bergoglian (Francis) agenda, signifies not the preaching of the Gospel ad gentes for the salvation of souls, but the adaptation of the Faith to the world. It is the practical application of the Modernist heresy condemned by St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis and Lamentabili Sane Exitu: the evolution of dogma, the subordination of doctrine to “pastoral” utility, the replacement of the depositum fidei with “religious experience.” The “new evangelization” does not call Muslims in Damascus to baptism and the true Faith; it invites them to “dialogue” where the Cross is hidden lest it offend. It is the “silence about supernatural matters” which is the gravest accusation against the neo-clergy. Maroun’s 35 years in Minneapolis, serving a parish integrated into the Americanist, liberal establishment, have formed him perfectly for this role: a manager of decline, a facilitator of the Great Apostasy in the Middle East.
Canon 188.4 and the Automatic Vacancy of Heretical Sees
The 1917 Code of Canon Law, Canon 188.4, states that an office becomes vacant “by the mere fact and without any declaration… if the cleric… publicly defects from the Catholic faith.” This applies with full force to every “bishop” and “priest” of the conciliar sect who professes the Vatican II religion. Maroun, by accepting appointment from an antipope and pledging fidelity to the conciliar magisterium, publicly defects from the Faith. He loses his office ipso facto. The example of Nestorius, cited by Pope Celestine I and St. Cyril of Alexandria, proves that a heretical prelate loses jurisdiction the moment he preaches heresy, long before any declaratory sentence. The faithful of Damascus who recognize Maroun as their legitimate shepherd are deceived; they follow a hireling who enters not by the door but climbs up another way (Jn 10:1). The true Maronite faithful—those few who keep the Tradition of the Fathers, the unadulterated Liturgy, and the profession of the integral Faith—owe him no obedience. They must withdraw, cum Petro et sub Petro, awaiting the restoration of the true hierarchy.
EWTN: The Propaganda Arm of the Neo-Church
The source of this report, EWTN News, functions as the semi-official media organ of the conciliar sect. Founded by the modernist “Mother” Angelica and now fully integrated into the Bergoglian/Prevostian apparatus, it sanitizes the usurpation with professional journalism. The article’s tone—bureaucratic, celebratory, devoid of any reference to the Kingship of Christ, the Social Reign of the Sacred Heart, or the necessity of the Catholic Faith for salvation—is the tone of the world. It treats the installation of a “bishop” in a war-torn land as a human resources update. There is no mention of the spiritual state of the flock, the peril of souls, the need for the Mass of Ages, the rosary, penance. Only “partnerships,” “dialogue,” “new evangelization,” and “heritage.” This is the “laicism” Pius XI denounced: “the denial of Christ the Lord’s reign over all nations.” EWTN does not report for the Church; it manages perceptions for the sect.
Conclusion: No Legitimacy, No Obedience, No Communion
The installation of Sharbel Maroun by the antipope Leo XIV is a non-event in the order of grace and a crime in the order of jurisdiction. It is the conciliar sect tightening its grip on a suffering Church in Syria, ensuring that the Maronite hierarchy remains a reliable vassal of the Vatican’s Masonic agenda. The true Catholics of Damascus—and of Minneapolis, and of Los Angeles—must recognize that the visible structures they see are occupied by the enemy. The Church of Christ is not there. She subsists in the catacombs, in the homes where the true Mass is offered by valid priests, in the hearts that reject the “new pentecost” for the Pentecost of the Apostles. Non praevalebunt (the gates of hell shall not prevail), but they rage fiercely. Let the faithful flee the hirelings and cleave to the Chief Shepherd, who alone gives the true mandate: Pasce oves meas (Feed my sheep).
Source:
Pope Leo XIV gives assent to election of new archbishop of Maronite Archeparchy of Damascus (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 28.08.2026